Tour to China

This was a really quiet day today. The big news was that the temperature was 93 - and this will continue for a week or so.

Jan asked me to pick her up at the airport this afternoon. No problem, of course - we're only 15 minutes away. Then she called, and she had missed her connection in Atlanta. It is great to be able to check flight times on the internet. I was able to continue to track her flight. That flight wound up being an hour late, but I got the airport only minutes before the plane did. It was a long travel day for her, and she was glad to get into her house.

Gin & Jim called the other day. They're still recuperating from their trip to China. They arrived in China just the earthquake struck (cause and effect???). It was a very strenuous trip - as expected. One of their main impessions was of the incredible air pollution. They were very glad to see blue skies when they got home. There were mountains they never saw because of it. The Chinese don't consider a city a "city" unless it has over a million people. That's really huge - certainly behind by comprehension. Many of our states don't have even one city over a million. I asked if they thought China was going to be able to keep their promise of clearing the air before the Olympics. The reply that there was no way - even if they closed all the factories and took all the cars off the streets today. The few ordinary people they had contact with (non tour related) were very nice and courteous. Conclusion? It's a trip they were very glad to have made, but wouldn't want to do it again.

Today's photo is a satellite picture from February 2008 of the air pollution over China.